InterSystems IRIS vs. Microsoft SQL Server

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
InterSystems IRIS
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
InterSystems IRIS is a complete cloud-first data platform that includes a multi-model transactional data management engine, an application development platform, and interoperability engine, and an open analytics platform. It is is the next generation of InterSystems' data management software. It includes…N/A
Microsoft SQL Server
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database.
$1,418
Per License
Pricing
InterSystems IRISMicrosoft SQL Server
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Subscription
$1,418.00
Per License
Enterprise
$13,748.00
Per License
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
InterSystems IRISMicrosoft SQL Server
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
InterSystems IRISMicrosoft SQL Server
Considered Both Products
InterSystems IRIS
Chose InterSystems IRIS
InterSystems IRIS is more efficient than other applications therefore, it is preferred over the others. Moreover, it is more cost-effective than other applications like Microsoft SQL Server, therefore, many organizations such as small businesses can afford it. Lastly, …
Chose InterSystems IRIS
InterSystems IRIS includes a wide array and assortment of otherwise stand-alone solutions. Having a single platform to support database interoperability, storage, and analytics, let alone Security and SQL tools is a great advantage over solutions that tackle a single aspect of …
Chose InterSystems IRIS
The process of migration and scaling due to heavy lifting is also easier, the speed of performance of IRIS is good and fast were able to get a high increase in query performance after our switch and [immense] amount of features integrated with the solution, from the web …
Chose InterSystems IRIS
InterSystems IRIS has the flexibility and power to be more than just a databse engine. We are able to create our business processes and interface with out javascript front end. SQL Server has been useful through the Entity framework connecting both together has been the …
Chose InterSystems IRIS
I have always studied other databases, I cannot say if it is a problem for Brazilian colleges, however, after meeting IRIS / Caché, my concept of databases has changed. A much more robust and faster bank.
Now that I have had the opportunity to work with this database, there is …
Chose InterSystems IRIS
The only comparison I can make is that they are all database tools. I strongly believe that just the fact that IRIS is not so widespread and easy to find in research forums is the reason why it is not so "famous". The tool meets and meets all needs for any situation.
Chose InterSystems IRIS
They shared a set of limits:
- speed
- exhaustive memory consumption
Microsoft SQL Server

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
InterSystems IRISMicrosoft SQL Server
Database Development
Comparison of Database Development features of Product A and Product B
InterSystems IRIS
7.3
44 Ratings
15% below category average
Microsoft SQL Server
-
Ratings
Version control tools6.838 Ratings00 Ratings
Test data generation7.739 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance optimization tools6.942 Ratings00 Ratings
Schema maintenance7.542 Ratings00 Ratings
Database change management7.543 Ratings00 Ratings
Database Administration
Comparison of Database Administration features of Product A and Product B
InterSystems IRIS
7.4
44 Ratings
15% below category average
Microsoft SQL Server
-
Ratings
User management7.444 Ratings00 Ratings
Database security7.544 Ratings00 Ratings
Database status reporting7.641 Ratings00 Ratings
Change management7.443 Ratings00 Ratings
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InterSystems IRISMicrosoft SQL Server
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User Ratings
InterSystems IRISMicrosoft SQL Server
Likelihood to Recommend
7.8
(44 ratings)
9.6
(96 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.2
(1 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(3 ratings)
9.9
(10 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.4
(4 ratings)
7.9
(25 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.2
(1 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
InterSystems IRISMicrosoft SQL Server
Likelihood to Recommend
InterSystems
Intersystems IRIS is a really great tool for Interoperability. It has so many capabilities out of the box and then such a great developer community on top of that, that there are really no limits to what you can do in terms of data manipulation and translation. Personally I find it to be a great tool if you are looking for Interoperability software.
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Microsoft
Microsoft SQL Server is a great RDBMS and meets all of our requirements. If you need a stable DB platform to support your line of a business application you'll be well served. Licensing costs are far cheaper, more portable and a lot more user friendly than Oracle. Product support and security patches from Microsoft are strong.
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Pros
InterSystems
  • Connecting with mutliple vendor platforms and systems allowing us to consume and provide data as needed.
  • Allowed us to implement our own RESTful api engine to server data to our internal applications.
  • Setting up their recommendations for high availability allow us to perform server maintenance with minimal down time to our users.
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Microsoft
  • Easy to configure and use with Visual Studio and Dot Net
  • Easy integration with MSBI to perform data analysis
  • Data Security
  • Easy to understand and use
  • Very easy to export database and tables in the form of SQL query or a script
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Cons
InterSystems
  • Enhanced documentation, more comprehensive and user-friendly documentation, including detailed tutorials and examples
  • Improving compatibility and integrations with others programming languages
  • Introducing tools and techniques to optimize the performance of ObjectScript applications, such as profiling tools, performance monitoring utilities, and code optimization guidelines
  • A better compatibility with Python libraries
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Microsoft
  • The import/export process can be tricky to follow with lots of steps and could be better for importing flat files
  • Obtaining help from Microsoft is cumbersome and often other internet sources are better and quicker
  • The documentation is not great and again it's generally better to obtain help elsewhere if needed
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Likelihood to Renew
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
We understand that the Microsoft SQL Server will continue to advance, offering the same robust and reliable platform while adding new features that enable us, as a software center, to create a superior product. That provides excellent performance while reducing the hardware requirements and the total cost of ownership of our solution.
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Usability
InterSystems
The interface is very intuitive, the documentation is very good so it is not complicated to operate.
The security is complex, but you can create a special role to access and the user ONLY can operate with the part that it allows.
Also, you can examine the data very quick with the SQL Browser integrated.
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Microsoft
SQL Server mostly 'just works' or generates error messages to help you sort out the trouble. You can usually count on the product to get the job done and keep an eye on your potential mistakes. Interaction with other Microsoft products makes operating as a Windows user pretty straight forward. Digging through the multitude of dialogs and wizards can be a pain, but the answer is usually there somewhere.
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Reliability and Availability
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
Its does not have outages.
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Performance
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
SSAS data cubes may some time slow down your Excel reports.
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Support Rating
InterSystems
The InterSystems WRC has always been helpful and responsive. The folks I have spoken with are always understanding of our needs and questions and regardless of if the question is simple or complex we are always met with the same professionalism and helpfulness every time. I have no hesitations contacting InterSystems for help!
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Microsoft
We managed to handle most of our problems by looking into Microsoft's official documentation that has everything explained and almost every function has an example that illustrates in detail how a particular functionality works. Just like PowerShell has the ability to show you an example of how some cmdlet works, that is the case also here, and in my opinion, it is a very good practice and I like it.
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In-Person Training
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
It was good
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Online Training
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
very hands on and detailed training
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Implementation Rating
InterSystems
Will done based on a proper planning, so this will makes execution more easier and better.
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Microsoft
Other than SQL taking quite a bit of time to actually install there are no problems with installation. Even on hardware that has good performance SQL can still take close to an hour to install a typical server with management and reporting services.
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Alternatives Considered
InterSystems
We are using InterSystems IRIS [especially] for database operations as the query performance is really good for [a large] amount of customer data. You can easily integrate for any application like web, desktop, and many more. It also provides BI functionality which is also very easy to implement using InterSystems IRIS[.]
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Microsoft
[Microsoft] SQL Server has a much better community and professional support and is overall just a more reliable system with Microsoft behind it. I've used MySQL in the past and SQL Server has just become more comfortable for me and is my go to RDBMS.
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Scalability
InterSystems
No answers on this topic
Microsoft
SQL server does handle growing demands of a mid sized company.
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Return on Investment
InterSystems
  • Very Fast and scalable software to deal with big data flow, safe and robust.
  • The studio IDE is quite old fashion and lacks a few facilities
  • amazing for complex data consumption, its milyi-model capability wich allows multiple different models for a single set of codes.
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Microsoft
  • Increased accuracy - We went from multiple users having different versions of an Excel spreadsheet to a single source of truth for our reporting.
  • Increased Efficiency - We can now generate reports at any time from a single source rather than multiple users spending their time collating data and generating reports.
  • Improved Security - Enterprise level security on a dedicated server rather than financial files on multiple laptop hard drives.
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